MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) – “It gets frustrating. Like really frustrating,” Shari-Jo Perkins of Montpelier said. She catches a Green Mountain Transit bus nearly every day. It gets her where she needs to go, but not always on time. “At the hospital you have to be there like 15 minutes early and if you’re there late you can’t get into your appointment,” Perkins added.
Labor shortages – intensified by the pandemic – hit Vermont hard. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Vermont has 36 available workers for every 100 jobs. GMT is feeling the heat. Short on drivers, they’ve reduced rural bus routes in Washington County for most of the last two years.
“We’ve certainly heard from people who are relying on public transportation that our reductions in service are impacting their ability to get to where they need to be, and in some cases, they need to find alternatives,” GMT General Manager Clayton Clark said.
GMT says Washington County sees the greatest shortage, but the service impacts are widespread. In Chittenden County, most bus routes stay open but service comes at a price.
“When you see a GMT bus driving around the Burlington area, there’s at least a one in four chance that that driver is on overtime, if not forced overtime,” Clark explained. He says it’s creating an even greater driver shortage. “It feels horrible. I hate doing it. As you can imagine, it is something that really contributes towards people not wanting to stay a bus driver for a career. It’s something that we hate to do, but it’s an unfortunate necessity at the moment.”
To attract drivers, GMT is paying for commercial driving license courses and increasing pay to $30/hour starting July 1.